Tag: loom knitting

Items to Craft for Chronically Ill Friends & Relatives, Part One

National Invisible Awareness Week has ended but it’s still National Pain Awareness Month and right now I’m well aware of my pain so I thought I’d blog instead 😉  In honour of my Crafting for Causes charity program (which has NO donations yet *sniff sniff* — whatcha waiting on people??) I thought I would list just a small sampling of items that could brighten an ill person’s day and/or make their lives easier. Of course some of this depends on what kind of illness they have but you’d be using your judgement, of course!

Papercrafting

  • Handmade cards and postcards (can involve sewing/quilting/fabric/etc too!)
  • Signs of good wishes to hang up near their bed/lair
  • Mini-books filled with inspirational quotes
  • Personalized stationery to make it easy to write notes to friends — with postage included
  • Blank journals to record their health, feelings, dreams or wishes, etc.

Quilting

  • Lap quilts for wheelchair users (I like 30 inches square finished size)
  • Small throws for lounging on the sofa
  • Bed quilts, especially for the hospitalized to bring to colour to the room
  • Padded cases for eyeglasses
  • Thick quilted “pot” holders to be used for hot OR cold items (my hands can’t handle taking things out of the freezer, for instance)

Sewing

  • All kinds of warmers made with grains/rice inside of fabric that can be microwaved; these can be shaped for certain body parts or square for a generic heating pad
  • Nice pillows to put said warmers into, or just in general
  • Fleece hats
  • Extra-warm Mittens
  • Bed jackets and shrugs
  • Bags and totes for carrying things to appointments
  • Bags, “backpacks” and other items to add storage space to a rollator or wheelchair
  • “Slanket”/”Snuggie” type throws
  • Cute animals to cuddle up with — yes even adults like to sleep with a friend sometimes! — ideally very soft as well

Knit/Crochet

  • Lap blankets for wheelchair users (see above)
  • Throws for lounging
  • Shrugs and cardigans for those who get cold easily
  • Gloves, mittens or fingerless versions thereof
  • Wrist, arm, legwarmers
  • Hats, especially soft ones that are washable but don’t have bulky brims (for those of us who have to sleep in hats a bump at the brim can be uncomfortable)
  • Handmade socks
  • Prayer square where appropriate
  • Cute, soft animals (see above)

Toiletries — check with the person first for allergies/sensitivities!!

  • Lotions for those with skin problems
  • Unscented items for people allergic to perfumes
  • Exfoliating items for people who can’t bathe/shower every single day (dead skin can build up quickly)
  • Aromatherapy blends for relaxation, stress reduction, mental clarity, etc.
  • Bath blends without harsh chemicals; salts are usually good for this
  • Massage oils safe for use on the temples and forehead or warming or cooling ones for the body

Beading

  • Bookmarks
  • Stretchy jewelry for people who have trouble with hooks and clasps
  • Pretty, sparkly things for women who may be feeling unfeminine b/c of illness or side effects of treatment
  • Prayer beads where appropriate
  • Tiaras to make them the Queen of their Domain 🙂
  • Medic alert IDs — make the medic sign very visible
  • Awareness jewelry relating to their specific disease(s)

This is really a small sample of things that can be made, and things I plan to make for others.  Watch this space for more ideas in the weeks to come, and of course feel free to ask any questions about the items listed or to make suggestions of your own!

Safe and almost Sound

Just a quick note to say that I am safely arrived in America (despite an unusually gruelling trip). However, my computer did not arrive intact and needs to go to the shop to fix (or worst case replace) the hard drive. I have my data backed up so this is more of an inconvenience than emergency. But still, I may not be online much until it gets fixed — or maybe I will as Mom’s work is loaning me a MacBook Air until my Mini is back from the shop, wheee 🙂 But I may still have problems accessing Mail and the like depending on how much I can recover from that hard drive before it goes into the shop as my backups are in the UK and will take some time to get here if needed.

Have done a ton of crafty shopping today, mostly books, magazines and second sets of supplies that are going to live here at my parents house so I don’t have to keep dragging things back and forth across the ocean (beading pliers, Knifty Knitters, etc.). And 10 skeins of Lion Brand Homespun, at last! Now to find a Serenity loom if we make it to a Hobby Lobby (sadly, an hour or so away from here), or to ponder an afghan or prayer shawl loom from somewhere else if it would get here in time before I leave (which may be as soon as 9 weeks from now). Meanwhile I have the Fine Gauge double rake from Decor Accents to play with and 15 balls of Peaches and Creme so many dishcloths are in my future! Still waiting on the DA single rake and sock loom which should get here in a week or two.

Oh and did I mention that mom gave me a yarn budget of $200? (Not counting the Homespun or anything else that is being made for her.) Yaaaaaaay! I love being a spoiled only child!!

BTW the trip to Tampa, Florida is back on but Pennsylvania is still cancelled. My dad’s colonoscopy is on the 29th so fingers crossed that the news is good. They did find that he had a massive infection of the intestines requiring IV antibiotics so maybe, just maybe, that was behind the mass they had seen on tests before. *hope hope* It may be something like Chron’s or Diverticulitis but those are very manageable and certainly less life threatening than cancer. So he’s not coming home for the summer and we’ll have to go visit him. He retires from the Army in December so will finally get to come home for good then, no more tours of duty!!

But first up I have to finish the item for the Functional Felt Swap and mail my ATC for the Creative Mom swap. And get my computer fixed. So until tomorrow…

One from the vaults: Scooter Hat

I made this around the end of February but never got around to posting.

 "Scooter" Hat

I call this the Scooter hat because it reminds me of the hair of Scooter from the Muppet Show.  Inspired by the Rasta Hat of Annie Modesitt, I’ve never seen the pattern just the pictures.  Made with Colinette Prism yarn in the Zebra colourway on the Reader’s Digest circle loom.  Fits me snugly so approximately youth sized or very small ladies.

I can’t believe it’s not Monday

We had a nice Bank Holiday Weekend (three-day weekend) here, the weather actually warmed up — rather too fast IMO — and the sun has been coming out more than in the last nine months put together.  Which has actually made photography a little difficult, I’m not used to full, bright sun!

Anyway, important reminder: My 5K walk for Fibromyalgia research is on Saturday so please donate now!  If you are new to this blog, Fibro is one of the many diseases that I have and walking 5K is well beyond my normal limits but it was important for me to do this as it’s a very worthy cause.  You can read more about my struggle on the donation page linked above.

So meanwhile, back to other things. We went to the National History show which was genealogy, archaeology and military history all together in one Expo.  Once again I was shocked that no scrapbooking suppliers were there as that seems like a great audience.  We saw some of the Time Team members (Tim, Tony and Phil) doing various presentations and generally found out about new stuff out for the genealogy market, etc.  The only thing we bought was mead from Three Drunken Monks but then we went to the huge Whole Foods in Kensington to stock up on supplies.

I’m still recovering from that day even though I was in the chair. I also seem to have come down with some kind of stomach virus which is unpleasant to say the least.  So my crafting has been pretty minimal.  I made two coffee cozies (which I would show you but my camera doesn’t like bright sun apparently, the colours went all weird) and started a legwarmer for a friend but I started getting hotspots on my fingers so had to give it a rest.  When I can’t knit or do something productive I feel guilty or at least out of sorts while sitting and watching tv or movies but sometimes my body just needs the rest and there’s nothing I can do about it.

I’m off to lay down again and get more rest.  I need to plan the route for Saturday’s walk ASAP and just spend the week resting up that’s going to be very, very taxing.  But I have so much crafting to be done in the next few weeks that I’m already feeling the stress and need to get things done for the sake of my brain,so we’ll just have to see what I can manage in between naps!

Create @ Late

Alas, in this case I don’t have many pictures. I took video last night but I have yet to edit it and that’s pretty far down the priority list at the moment, so you’ll have to wait. Sorry!

Last night, the Museum of London had its monthly late night opening (link may rot) but for this occasion it had a crafty theme.  There were booths of people making felt mustaches, animals out of pipe cleaners and wool, a diorama of London with plasticine sculptures, a sign language music video about London and in the other room the booths of knitting, crocheting and spinning.  You can guess what room I was in!

First I met up with my acquaintance, the lovely Claire from PurlPirate, who was teaching hyperbolic crochet which makes a coral-ish sort of shape.  She gave me several pointers about the second row issue (using a larger hook to cast on, not trying to get “under the v” when stitching into the chain, etc.) so I hope that I will be able to improve when I try it again next week.  She also had quite a crowd of people trying out the hyperbolic forms, including many totally new to crocheting.  Go Claire!  She was also teaching people how to crochet with plastic bags and gave an excellent demo on how to cut them up into jag-less strips.

Next I met Rachael Matthews and Louise of Prick Your Finger  (their blog), a yarn and fiber shop that I am sad to say that I have not yet made it to.  Especially since they are involved in the Walking Stick Cozy competition with Missability (run by Felix).  (As an aside, I am sad that I have not yet been able to make a cozy for any of my walking sticks, I think I need the Knifty Knitter Bloom Loom for that to get the right sized tube and shall get one this summer but alas, too late for the competition which ended yesterday.) Bethnal Green is geographically closer to me than Waterloo (home of I Knit) but it’s harder for me to get to due to the weird nature of the London bus system, and that’s why I have yet to go to Prick Your Finger. 🙁  They were demo’ing spinning and had drop spindles available to play with and a big bag of what I think is Black Welsh Mountain fiber.

I sat there forever and made this bundle of yarn:
Third yarn

Not bad for my third time on a drop spindle, but all the credit goes to the fiber, which was sooo easy to spin and wanted to be spun so fine it was almost scary.  Just in case it was the spindle rather than the fiber I tried a bit of my signature flouro pink roving but it came out crap as always. The moral of the story is that I am not very good with roving but am much better with carded batts, so I need to card my fiber!  I have handcarders but man, I covet a drum carder now.

Black Welsh Mountain is a mountain fiber so it’s very scratchy.  I don’t know that I would use this sort of yarn for much of anything but it was heavenly to spin so I shall endeavor to get to PYF before I leave for the summer to get some more to play with!

Finally, I went to meet some of the lovely ladies of Stitch and Bitch London.  I’d only just signed up for their newsletter about three days ago so I haven’t had a chance to attend their events yet (I couldn’t do their sewing up event on the 30th as I had to rest up to go out on the 1st). But it was very nice to meet people and show off the world of loomknitting.  Photos of me will probably be appearing on their blog in the near future.

I didn’t really have anything to do with the other crafty things,which seemed either aimed at kids or designed for people who aren’t usually crafty to dip their toe into the waters and have a little fun.  I have nothing against that, I just wasn’t in the mood.

Still, it was a very fun evening and many thanks to all of the lovely ladies I met who made it such a great experience!

Tidbits: Tried and not quite true

Some more photos just so I can catch up on the past week.  (I still have several months backlog of photos and events to blog about, but I am at least trying to stay on top of things as they are happen now!)

This week I attempted to crochet:

Baby Crochet

I didn’t get very far, I’m still having difficulty with the second row issue, but I got lots of tips last night (which I shall blog about in a minute) so I think I shall give it a go again this week with hopefully better luck.  Buthey, at least I did get stitches made in a second row!

I also made a partial gauge swatch:

Gauge Swatch

I was supposed to knit a 4 inch swatch but by three inches in I knew that I didn’t want to use this yarn for that project.  I did get gauge though, so I am chuffed about that 😉  I will use this yarn on a felting project, probably a laptop cover.  But it (Debbie Bliss Soho) is just too scratch for a hat and I don’t really want to have to line it.

Also in the photo is my new temporary wedding ring, I think I have blogged about it but not sure :/  (Brain is sooo not what it used to be, thanks fibro!)  My real one doesn’t fit at the moment but as I *have* to lose weight because of the diabetes I didn’t want to get it resized so I got a temporary one from the same place as t’s wedding ring and he is getting one to match (but wearing it on a different finger, it’s been backordered for a while though 🙁 ).  I couldn’t wear rings at all for about five years because my fingers swell a lot during the day but that is lessened now and also I don’t need to use two sticks quite as much, I can make do with one, so that makes it easier to wear a ring on my left hand.  It’s just so nice to have *any* wedding ring 🙂  Plus I can wear this one on a different finger once I do lose the weight.

Order up!

I finally ordered my first “big girl” looms from Decor Accents — an extra small gauge straight rake for dishcloths and an extra fine gauge sock loom (will fit me and t both, yay!) to be delivered to my mom’s house. Now to find some cheap sock yarn to practice on — anyone destashing? Mom has already bought something like 25 skeins of Peaches & Creme for me (she went to the factory outlet unchaperoned and went a bit crazy!) so I’m good for dishcloths for now 😉

I’m sure I will eventually get plenty more looms — I’m especially hoping that Duxall Inarow (love that name!) will resume producing her stunning rakes soon.

I’m also going to try my hand at crocheting dishcloths this summer as I’m feeling a lot more confident wielding a hook now after using it so much for casting on and finishing things on the loom. I sooo need a light-up hook for the road trip, methinks 😉 (Oh yeah, forgot to mention we’re driving to PA — I have a sneaking suspicion that there will be many quilt stores on our route!)

Sorry I’ve taken so long with getting all of the Paris and spinning class stuff written up but t and I have a stomach virus right now so we’re behind on everything — except our tv watching 😉

Coming out for Spring

I know I have been very remiss in my blogging endeavours, but I have to plead illness.It’s been a very hard month+ for me and talking to people is one of the most difficult things at times so I’m afraid I have just been hibernating away. But today, perhaps because of the spring weather (oh how I wish it were going to last!) or perhaps because I saw mallard ducks in my back lawn (why I have no idea and sadly I didn’t have my camera with me) or because I have a lot of announcements, I have finally felt like talking to the world at large.

But before I say more about what has been going on, here are some piccies for your entertainment:

Scarf for Mom

Scarf for Mom -- Detail

That is a scarf that I made for my mother last December, didn’t photograph until February and am only managing to post about today. It was made using Trendsetter Yarns Blossom using the Alternating rib stitch (5 rows each direction) on the Knifty Knitter long yellow loom. At least, this is how it looked before I washed it and sadly it is far more anaemic looking now 🙁 I’ll try to photograph it again to show the difference. t says he can’t tell and looking at the scrap yarn I can’t tell differences in the strands individually, but it just looks less fluffy 🙁 I’m very mad at myself for chancing a machine wash (delicate cycle) on a handwash yarn, even though I know my mom will only machine wash it anyway. I feel like I screwed up US$45 worth of lovely yarn and am really beating myself up about it 🙁

Beating myself up about things is sort of the theme lately, as that’s part of what happens in my depression cycle. The big D is what has been making life  miserable lately (mentally and physically as it increases pain levels). I’m not really going to talk about it much here as I know people don’t like hearing about that very much and so I’d rather save your illness attention spans for when I may need it in the future 😉 But I’ll just say that it has been the worst episode ever but finally my meds are adjusted and things seem to be on an even keel again. I still don’t feel that my meds are quite right, but I plan to study the meditation course for the prevention of depression relaspe so hopefully the meds will become less important in time.

The big news is that I have decided to go to America for a while this year. Normally this wouldn’t be news as I spend between 5 and 10 weeks a year there but I had actually been planning to *not* go over this year and have my parents come visit me instead. But my dad got sick (another reason I have been silent online is being stressed over him being in the hospital, etc.) and can’t do a long haul flight for a while and now my health problems are just getting to be more than t can handle. We’re going to have to look into getting me a carer but to do that I need to get disability benefits and that’s going to take several months so the temporary answer is that I will be going to the US to stay with my mom for two months to give t a break, then she will come over here for a few weeks to get some stuff organized so that we’re in a better position for the future.

SO: I’m going to be going to North Carolina from late May (ish) to the end of July (ish), with stops in Pittsburgh (and maybe Philly) and Tampa to see my dad (and maybe Disneyworld, that would rock!). I’m going to work on my knitting, practice spinning and maybe do some re-enacting. Also probably doing some scrapbooking and maybe a bit of quilting (Mom’s a big time quilt freak). And buying craft supplies. Oh yes, the best part! 🙂

All that comes after our trip to Paris next week though 🙂

I have more to talk about but I must rest my hands, my spinning class is tomorrow so I can’t afford to be crampy! 🙂 I’ll try to post again soon, really!

Lagoon legwarmer

Lagoon Legwarmer

I had started this thinking it would be a thing-a-day but the blasted thing took me twelve hours over two days.   Knowing that has put me off doing its mate until thing-a-day is over.

Anyway, the gory details: One legwarmer, extra-long (I like em to come up over my knees), made in K2P2 (2×2) ribbing on the green loom that came with the Reader’s Digest set (does this thing have a real name?).  Made from one skein of Colinette Prism in the Lagoon colourway, to be worn with the Ponytail hat.  With lots and lots of flaws where I purled instead of knitting and vice versa.  Doing ribbing for a few rows isn’t so bad, but for over two feet is a lot harder than I thought!  But I guess part of knitting, especially when something is meant as a utility garment rather than stylish one, is that you have to learn to live with the mistakes.  Still, I think I have a lot more love for storebought legwarmers after this.  (And the ones I shall be making for friends will be ribbed at both ends but e-wrapped in the middle!!!)